This application relates to an improved fan guard which reduces the necessary space and materials for packaging and shipping the guard, and to a unique packaging for a guard/impeller subassembly.
A known fan includes a fan guard having front and rear guard halves for surrounding a blade or impeller. In the known fan, the front and rear guard halves are substantially identical in size and construction. There are some structural differences between the two guard halves for mounting other portions of the fan. In one prior art fan, the two guard halves were secured together by numerous hooks. When the guard halves were stacked for shipping, often these hooks locked on adjacent guard halves, damaging the adjacent guard halves and making it very difficult to disassemble the stacked guard halves.
In an improved prior art fan, the front and rear guard halves are connected to each other by moving hinge members through sets of spaced aligned eyelets. Such a fan is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,002,462. The disclosure of this patent with regard to the structure of the fan, and in particular the application of the hinge members, is incorporated herein by reference.
It is known to pack the prior art fan guard/impeller subassemblies for shipment by placing one of the two guard halves within the other, and then placing the impeller within the uppermost of the guard halves. Since the prior art guard halves are of substantially the same size, the uppermost guard half is not fully received in the other guard half. This has resulted in a relatively large amount of space being required for packing the prior art guards. This is, of course undesirable. Further, the guard halves tend to bind together making separation difficult. Also, the prior art has not been able to pack plural guards in a single container without undesirable shipping damage. In particular, it has been difficult to adequately protect the impeller.